Walton: Violin and Cello Concertos

William Walton is one of the most internationally famous British composers of the 20th century. His colourful orchestral scores, including two symphonies, concertos for both the violin and cello and his Coronation marches, have gained him a place in the standard repertoire. Yet for such a famous composer he wrote very little. The two concertos are cast in the mould of the great virtuoso showpieces of the Romantic era, the soloist given every opportunity for technical display, while the orchestra provides a backdrop of the iridescent tone colours.

"Walton wrote his Cello Concerto on the Italian island of Ischia. Its sunny, daydreaming mood is perfectly captured in Tim Hugh's powerful, yet mellow performance, and the spectacular fireworks of the Violin Concerto - composed for the late great Jascha Heifetz - cause no problems for Korean virtuoso Dong-Suk Kang."
- Classic FM, Jan 2000

This welcome new issue in Naxos's excellent Walton series neatly follows up their recent coupling, closely parallel, of Britten's Violin Concerto and Cello Symphony (8.553882). Here again, the cellist is Tim Hugh, outstanding in every way, whose reading in some ways is the most searching yet.

[Tim Hugh] finds a thoughtfulness, a sense of mystery, of inner meditation in Walton's great lyrical ideas... always sounding strong and spontaneous in the face of any technical challenges.

As in their previous Walton recordings, Paul Daniel and the English Northern Philharmonia play with equal flair and sympathy, so that the all-important syncopations always sound idiomatic.

There is a similar balance in the Violin Concerto... Dong-Suk Kang here follows up the success of his Naxos recording of the Elgar Violin Concerto, playing immaculately with fresh, clean-cut tone, pure and true above the stave... Many will also applaud the way that Kang opts for speeds rather faster and more flowing than have latterly been favoured.